The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1887-09-28
Published by Request.I
re Pulpit and Prohibition.

zhf. fdtt0f--lhe enclosed articles
from the peno Rev. D. E. Frier-
son, d. d., of the Presbyterian
church, 6south9 appeared first in
the Christian Observer" and have
been extensively copied. DR. F.
is eminent for piety as well as
scholarship and the good spirit in
which he writes will at least com
mand the respect of those who do
not agree with him. He utters a
word of warning which is needed
and which ought to be needed by
ministers of the gospel if they do
not wish to degrade the sacred pull
pit into a political platform.
Yours very truly,
TRUTH.
Have. ministers of the gospel and
their churches, as such, any right to ad-
yocate Proiibition3l
Let us study tiistt question a mo-
ment.
Prohibition is fairly a political
issue. 1t is not only the agencies
by which it is actively promoted,
but in the very meaning its terms.
1t proposes to prohibit, aud that
means to employ governmental
power. None but God and the
powers he hath ordained for that
purpose, can use the sword, the inn
plement of the government.
The minister is employed special
" to use the power of persuasion,
entreaty and prayer. He is for
bidden by the very conditions of
his office to lay hold OF any other
weapon.
When he breaches Prohibition he
forsakes his own legitimate weap-
ons and ruins his own cause. He
destroys that perfectly free option
to which he must always make his
appeal. He puts himself and his
ministry in the absurd position of
appealing to the moral nature at
the moment that he is advocating
compuIsion. Why should he per-
suade at all if he can get law to
compel? BY the very terms of his
commission he is commanded to go
out into the "highways and hedges, y
to the poor and the MANNED, the
saloonist. and the drunlard, and
compel" them to come in by per-
suasion and entreaty.
1t is pleaded that the makers and
and sellers of whiskey are "hard
casses,' and that it is against them
that Prohibition is especially di-
rected. But does not the ministers
commission, in every term compel
require him to redonble his energies
of persuasion on hard cases2 Does
it allow him to select the easy cases,
and remit all hard cases to the law?
Can he afford to admit, with such a
commission as he has, and with the
promise of infinite power to succor
him, that there are any forlorn cases
in the world?
The minister who openly advo-
Gates Prohibition, forcIoses his in
fuence over large class of men, to
whom he has been sent. What be-
comes of the power of the pulpit
over them, when it is known to
have abandoned them to the law?
It is precisely this neglect OF
'thard cases." and readiness to
abandon them to the law, that is
filing the cities of the United States
with depraved population, and
making the drunkenness at which
the country is alarmed
But it is still more serious thing
than this, for the pulpit to advocate
Prohibition. 1t is shameful con
fession that the gospel ministry and
the church cannot overtake the evils
of intemperance, and that the church
must appeal to the State for help.
No concession could be SO dreadfully
unworthy of the church and her
ministry, or so insulting to God
Will God help those who disown bis
aid, and who seek help elsewherei
Will he help them in their attempts
to inaugurate an alliance between
the church and the State-an ALI
ance which dishonors Him and de.
grades his cause? For it is a bar.
gain, dd ralorem, in which the
church offers suffrage to the State tc
carry its political measures, and the
State offers sober citizens to the
church to carry its ecclesiastical
measures. Theass on which BALKAN
rode, refused to go on an errand in
which the church offered counsel tc
the State and the State offered
money to the church, and tho angeI
of the Lord stands with drawn